2. That God will be merciful to them ; though they sin against him, they shall notwithstanding escape well enough ; that he will not be severe against his creatures. But you reflect but upon one part of God's nature, liis mercy, without his holiness and justice, and so fancy an unrejiKonablo indulgence in God. You lessen his holiness : Ps. 1. 21, ' Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy- self.' They feign God to be what they would have him to be, and judge of his goodness by their own interest. A good man is troubled and grieved and offended with the impurities of others : 2 Peter ii. 7, 8, ' And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked ; for that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.' And yet a good man is but a partaker of the divine nature, hath but some strictures of it. Besides, you overlook his justice, which belongeth to his office as governor of the world, as if he would be merciful however men are qualified.
But doth not God deal with us in pure mercy, without any respect to qualifications ?
1 answer — We must distinguish between the mercy which God exerciseth as a free lord, and the mercy which he exerciseth as a righteous governor. The one is spoken of Piom. ix. 16, 'So then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.' The other, 1 Cor. ix. 24, 'So run that you may obtain.' There is a mercy that he showeth in converting some as a free lord, and a mercy that he showeth as a righteous governor, in
224 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SeR. VL
rewarding and punisliing. The first is not that you depend upon, for you are yet in your §ius, and care not to come out of them ; and the second you cannot presume of, that you shall find mercy though you 1^0 on in your sins ; for God, that is arbitrary in his gifts, is not so in his judgments. Mercy is for the support of the penitent. There is a duty God rcquireth of us before we can expect it from him: Isa. Iv. 7,
* Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts ; and let him turn unto the Lord, and he will have mercy ; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.' It is their cordial and thy poison : Ps. Ixviii. 20, 21, ' He that is our God is a God of salvation ; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. But God shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses.' Besides, you abuse God's mercy, and put it to the worst use, when you think it shall spare all and pardon all : Jude 4, ' Turning the grace of God into lascivious- ness.' They only make a dung-cart of God's mercy to carry away all their filth ; for God will show mercy only to true penitents : Ps. cxxx. 7,
* Let Israel hope in the Lord ; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him there is i)lenteous redemption.' Mercy is wrested from its proper use to increase our carnal security and boldness in sinning, and not to invite us to return to God. Well, tlien, according to rule, licentious persons cannot expect mercv, or they that impenitently live in a course of sin hope that they shall escape his vindictive justice.
3. That they are christians, and by external profession have received the faith of Christ. But the name will not save you without the power : 2 Tim. ii. 19, ' And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.' Christ came to save sinners, but from their sins, not m their sins : Mat. i. 21, ' He shall save his people from their sins.' And you mistake the nature of faith if you think it lieth in a strong confidence, and freedom from trouble for sin. No ; it is a hearty consent of subjection to Christ. He is not the best christian that hath least trouble, but the least cause for it. Otherwise to wink hard, and shut our eyes against all knowledge of christian duty and obedience, would make the best faith. No ; this is a purifying as well as a comforting grace : Acts xv. 9, ' Purifying their hearts by faith.' And they are the best christians where Christ performeth most of his office in turning them to God : Acts iii. 26, ' God having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.'
4. That none is ])erfect, and the rarest saints have fallen into as great faults, and so are persuaded that these gross sins are but frailties and human infirmities. SI David, cur non et ego ? — If David fell, why may not I ? was an old excuse in Salvian's time. They fell into sin, but did they wallow and lie in it? Will you live in sin, because in some rare case some of God's choicest servants have fallen into it ? Is the rest of your lives like theirs ? Did not they smart grievously for these sins ? and was not their repentance as remarkable as their fall ? Surely there is a difference between imperfection and Avicked- ness, as there is between falling by the stumbling of an horse into the mire, and wallowing therein in our drunkenness, or between the drowning of fields in a land-flood, and their being overflown by every tide.